Forget Equal Pay. The USWNT should make more.

July 7, 2019July 10, 2019

The concept of equality should be simple: one person is equal to another, with zero exceptions. The problem is that the world doesn’t work this way. Often, people aren’t considered to be equal to the person next to them for a variety of factors, some of which, like using race and gender to draw unfair conclusions, are very wrong. However, there are other factors which do actually justify inequality, such as being better at a job. With that in mind, I would posit that the U.S. Women’s National Team, who earlier today won their fourth World Cup, should make more than their male counterparts.

Allow me to argue my point. As of right now, the American men make inordinately more than the women. For instance, each member of the USWNT will receive a $250,000 bonus for winning the World Cup. Not bad, right? Well, when you compare that to the $1.1 million bonus that the each player on the USMNT would receive if the USA ever won the Men’s World Cup (won’t happen within at least 20 years, probably longer), it stinks of unacceptable inequality. To clarify, the USWNT has won four World Cups and four Olympic Gold Medals. The USMNT has not won either of those trophies. In fact, the American men didn’t even participate in the two most recent iterations of those events (the 2018 Men’s World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics).

What I’m arguing is that the USMNT should not make more than the USWNT, given the level of ineptitude that they regularly display on the global stage. Sure, they’re successful when playing in North America, but when you realize that all of their continental opponents are inferior, even to them, save Mexico, their success in CONCACAF (North American soccer federation) tournaments isn’t that impressive. What’s worse is that the women have been repeatedly denied for economic justice, and are now taking their case of wage inequality to U.S. District Court. The women’s team filed a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer in March alleging “institutional gender discrimination,” with a court date likely to come before the end of the year. I’d rather not have to bring up sexism in this, but that’s exactly what this issue boils down to.

Despite the obvious superiority of the USWNT over the USMNT, sexism has kept U.S. Soccer from actually giving the women what they deserve. Thanks to their overwhelming and continued success, they deserve to make more than the underachieving men do.